Tire Test - Continental E.Contact

Test Summary

Compare up to 3 tires

According to Continental, the E.Contact is a tire designed for large e-bikes or rental bikes. They claim this tire to have the highest puncture and cut protection while still providing a low rolling resistance thanks to its double layer of puncture resistance material. The E.Contact comes with the ECO 50 logo and the ECE-R75 certification which makes it suitable for high-speed e-bikes up to 50 km/h.

To achieve the highest puncture protection, Continental uses both a thick but soft layer of puncture resistance material together with a SafetyPlus Breaker which is a layer which is harder to penetrate, but much thinner. When examining the E.Contact, I immediately noticed this to be a very stiff tire. On top of that, the rubber compound itself also appears to be of a very hard kind. I definitely believe this tire to be hard to puncture, but is rolling resistance still acceptable?

Conclusion

Puncture resistance is good, but rolling resistance is very high. Continental's claim of offering the highest puncture resistance while still rolling easy isn't true. I really like Conti's road bike and mountain bike tires, but can't recommend using their touring bike tires as they don't impress. Using the E.Contact on rental bikes might be a good choice as I'm sure the hard compound and strong sidewalls will last for ages.

It gets boring, but just getting a pair of Schwalbe Marathon (read review) or Marathon Plus (read review) seems to be the easy choice in the tour/e-bike category. Those tires provide a good puncture resistance and a much lower rolling resistance.